HYDERABAD - The Sindh Government would takeover, operate and maintain all the Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants in Thar Coal Block-II.

Thar Foundation will bear all the expenses to operate and maintain these plants at international standards.

According to announcement here on Friday, Thar Foundation’s engineering department will manage these RO plants through a team of qualified and experienced persons.

The endeavor will benefit approximately 10,000 local population in Thar Coal Block-II and adjacent areas by providing them safe drinking water complying to WHO standards.

In the first phase, eight RO Plants located in Thar Coal Block-II area have been handed over to Thar Foundation, which were earlier being operated by a GoS appointed contractor.

In a letter issued to Thar Foundation by Sindh Public Health Engineering Department, all RO plants located in Thar Coal Block-II shall be fully repaired and maintained by Thar Foundation on its own expenses.

“As the RO plants will remain the property of Sindh PHED will regularly monitor the performance of the entrusted RO Plants,” the letter said.

Thar Foundation has been established by the Sindh Government together with Companies engaged in Thar Coal projects to improve the lives of the real stakeholders of Thar coal project, the residents and communities of Tharparkar.

Terming the move of provincial government in the right direction to address the drinking water scarcity in Thar, Shamsuddin Ahmed Shaikh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Thar Foundation said they want to partner with Sindh Government in uplifting the human development of Thar in all aspects.

He said, “We aspire to adopt and implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in an accelerated model for the entire tehsil of Islamkot – thereby making it Pakistan’s first SDG-compliant tehsil by 2024 – six years ahead of the global timeline,” he said.

He further said that they are already running around a state of the art RO plants successfully, serving 25,000 inhabitants of the area since last two years.

He added that Thar Foundation intends to take over all the RO Plants of Taulka Islamkot on a nonprofit basis for efficient and continued delivery of drinking water supply to the general public.

“If Sindh Government hands over all the RO Plants of Taulka Islamkot, approximately 100 in total to Thar Foundation at a market-based operating cost, we will prove our capacity and commitment to deliver the desired results,” he said.